How to Make a Revolution

“Is it possible to enable people to make all kinds of decisions about themselves freely by themselves, by ending the domination of small minorities over large majorities?” In this work, Erkin Özalp, who wrote the book Your Theorist Was a Revolutionary: Marxism and Socialism in the 21st Century and translated many works of Marx and Engels into Turkish, attempts to provide an affirmative answer to the above question by drawing on the relatively recent experiences of struggle in different countries. Among the many examples examined are the guerrilla war waged by the Maoists in Nepal, Hugo Chávez’s Bolivarian Revolution, the Zapatistas’ struggle to make a revolution “from below,” Syriza’s rise to power in Greece and its capitulation, the transformations that Podemos underwent while still in opposition as a party trying to implement the theory of populism in Spain, and the local efforts that brought the Austrian communists the mayoralty of Graz. Özalp, who evaluates the strategies of struggle implemented after the collapse of the socialist system in light of concrete experiences, discusses in outline how revolutions can be made that are the work of the masses themselves, that do not allow the reappearance of past weaknesses, and that can bring the emancipation of humanity closer, also considering the requirements of the revolutionary struggle in Turkey, and makes concrete suggestions. Without, of course, attempting to offer a ready-made “recipe.”

“Is it possible to enable people to make all kinds of decisions about themselves freely by themselves, by ending the domination of small minorities over large majorities?” In this work, Erkin Özalp, who wrote the book Your Theorist Was a Revolutionary: Marxism and Socialism in the 21st Century and translated many works of Marx and Engels into Turkish, attempts to provide an affirmative answer to the above question by drawing on the relatively recent experiences of struggle in different countries. Among the many examples examined are the guerrilla war waged by the Maoists in Nepal, Hugo Chávez’s Bolivarian Revolution, the Zapatistas’ struggle to make a revolution “from below,” Syriza’s rise to power in Greece and its capitulation, the transformations that Podemos underwent while still in opposition as a party trying to implement the theory of populism in Spain, and the local efforts that brought the Austrian communists the mayoralty of Graz. Özalp, who evaluates the strategies of struggle implemented after the collapse of the socialist system in light of concrete experiences, discusses in outline how revolutions can be made that are the work of the masses themselves, that do not allow the reappearance of past weaknesses, and that can bring the emancipation of humanity closer, also considering the requirements of the revolutionary struggle in Turkey, and makes concrete suggestions. Without, of course, attempting to offer a ready-made “recipe.”